Come May, Milton's beads will be packaged in Louisiana and sold through an online market at a higher price, 93 cents to $2 per necklace, than the average plastic bead but less than Kato's algae ...

Lucky spectators at the 2022 Freret or Tucks parades could catch one of the rarest Carnival throws ever. At long last, biodegradable beads, containing plastic made from algae in an LSU laboratory ...

LSU Biology lab releases prototype of 3D printed biodegradable Mardi Gras beads that include seeds for earth-friendly partying.

The biodegradable Mardi Gras beads and doubloons are made from microalgae biomass. Paige Jarreau/LSU Kato’s team started exploring growing microalgae for beads that would biodegrade.

They made 500 beads, but only 320 beads will be thrown at the parades this year. Being from Japan, Dr. Kato is happy to make an impact on such a world-wide cultural phenomenon as Mardi Gras.

What’s new are beads, which may look like normal Mardi Gras beads, but are made of algae. Professor Naohiro Kato, a biological sciences at Louisiana State University, ...

The beads are made primarily from a biodegradable mix of an algae product and chitosan, a material produced from shrimp and lobster shells. [Photo: courtesy Felix Roman/University of Puerto Rico ...

The cost to produce this particular type of bead is substantially more expensive than ordinary plastic beads. According to NOLA.com, the price of "algae" beads sits at $5 per necklace. So what is ...

In the second and third, which contain Great Lakes green and blue-green algae, the beads settled at the bottom. That's a problem for the environment, Gopalakrishnan said.

Archaeologists have pieced together — after studying residue in bowls and potsherds, skulls and bone fragments, and ...

Right now, the algae beads are pricey at $5 per necklace. Plastic necklaces, when bought in bulk, can cost pennies. More: What postponing Mardi Gras parades means for those who sell throws.

LSU Biology Professor Dr. Naohiro Kato is hoping to make Mardi Gras more eco-friendly with his new bead creations molded from micro-algae using the algae’s oils.